


All The Men And Women, Merely.....

by Writerscallgirl



Category: The Third Man (1949)
Genre: Dark, M/M, Moral Dilemmas, Pining, Reminiscing, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:00:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29822517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writerscallgirl/pseuds/Writerscallgirl
Summary: Harry Lime and Holly Martins, was there really a difference anymore?
Relationships: Harry Lime/Holly Martins
Kudos: 2





	All The Men And Women, Merely.....

One way or another, it always came down to choices.

Holly Martins's choice at this moment was to sit alone in a darkened room and drink himself into a stupor.

He doubted that anyone would really blame him at this point.

Not that there was anyone left to care, of course.

It was at times like these that he wondered why he didn't end up a loner. Like Harry.

But then, if the only company he craved was a dead man's, then maybe he _was_ a loner after all.

Holly brought a shaking hand up and ran it over his face.

The alcohol that they had in Vienna post-war was horrible for getting drunk.

What a missed opportunity for the alcohol industries.

Or maybe he was just building up a tolerance for it. It wouldn't surprise him, at the rate that he'd been drinking since he arrived in this city.

Since he had lost Harry Lime twice.

In his mind's eye he still stood there at the edge of the cemetery, at the end of that long lane lined with dreary trees.

In his head he was still standing there, watching with a cool sort of detachment as Anna walked closer.

Until she reached him and Holly's eyes narrowed as he felt an overwhelming wave of rage and jealousy at how easy it was for her to walk out of that cemetery, unaffected.

How easy it was for her to walk away.

He knew that she had seen the look, if the slight flinch was anything to go by as she walked past, never stopping.

It really didn't matter.

She was a chess piece that had ceased to matter the moment the hand of fate had swept the chessboard off the table.

Dark.

Black.

Black Market.

Black market penicillin, dead children, dead co-conspirators, everyone dead.

Only he was left alive, because Harry Lime _loved_ him.

He missed his flight.

And suspected that Calloway at least suspected the real reason why.

But strangely, he was alright with that.

Callaway was no fool, and he probably realized that, one way or another, there was no way to just end this game now that Holly was fully invested in playing.

Anna knew, but she didn't matter.

Not anymore.

Standing there in her dreary Vienna apartment in the damn half-light of bad electrical wiring, the look of sympathy in her eyes.

Sympathy for him, a man who's heart had belonged to a murderer.

She knew that she was safe.

That she had never really meant anything in this dangerous game, never really meant anything to Harry Lime.

Not like him.

"The goddamn Bride of Satan", Holly thought as he despondently raised a bottle of whiskey to his lips in a self-toast, sitting alone in the half-dark of his rented room.

Half-light suited him these days.

It made it easier for him to hide.

Even though he knew it was useless.

If Satan wanted his bride back, there was nowhere for him to hide, there never truly was.

Choices. The word kept going around in Holly's head.

He knew now what he was going to do and with a semi-regretful look at it, dropped the whiskey bottle into the trashbin.

It really wasn't very good alcohol anyway.  
,.........,..........,.........,.........,.........,.........,........,.........,

It wasn't hard to find the Romanian, Popescu, again.

In hindsight, Holly thought, it really should have been harder.

When you and your partner Kurtz are the only ones left to run a lucrative Black Market business, you really shouldn't be this easy to find.

Of course, with no guarantee that they would not shoot him on sight, he supposed he really was in no position to lecture them about stupidity.

They didn't, as it turned out.

Be that as it may, as the three of them sat down in a relatively fancy apartment inside the Russian zone, Holly had a suspicion that Kurtz would have been all for the idea, if the venomous looks being thrown at him were anything to go by.

To be fair, only the two men's loyalty to Harry was what saved them both from that very fate at Holly's hands.

........,........,........,.........,........,.........,.............,........,..........,

Major Calloway was already not having a good day when the first report was dropped on his desk unceremoniously, followed by others.

Black market penicillin being sold again.

The men that had been being watched as possible new leaders of the black market that Harry Lime had run, murdered.

"He's just a scribbler with too much drink in him."

How Calloway regretted those words now.  
..........,........,.........,...........,...........,............,............,............,

Holly Martins lit a cigarette on the balcony of the apartment in the Russian zone, dropping the match and grinding it under his foot as Popescu stepped out onto the balcony to join him.

Holly shot him a questioning look.

The Romanian nodded, taking out a cigarette of his own and lighting it. "They paid the price that we asked for."

"Good," Holly said, then his eyes hardened.

"The ratio?"

"Lethal," the Romanians face was blank as he said this, his tone giving away no emotion.

"Good", Holly said again, taking another drag from his cigarette, "I don't want there to be any more suffering of children".

The Romanian nodded at this, snubbing out his half-smoked cigarette and then turning as if to leave, he paused.

"Why?"

A strange look came over Holly's face.

"ls it really such a thing bad thing if one of those small dots stops moving forever?" Holly whispered softly, almost to himself.

Popescu looked puzzled.

Holly threw the rest of his cigarette down to the street below.


End file.
